Do the right thing

Photo is "Do the right thing" by Wadem

PR people should be the moral heart of their organisations.

Now I know that placing the word moral in the same sentence as PR is likely to generate, well, at least some cynicism. It may sound rather wide-eyed and idealistic. Not many people call me wide-eyed and idealistic. Not if they’ve met me. My submission is that it is both pragmatic and prudent.

Let’s take, oh just at random, the hypothetical example of a global oil giant losing an oil-rig, killing several employees and pumping loads of unpleasant thick black oil into a small and beautiful sea. I know it seems unlikely but bear with me. What’s the role of the PR team in all this? Damage control? Mopping up the fall out as fishermen go around mopping up the oil slick? Making sure the company gets its side of the story out there? This is the “in case of emergency break glass” model of public relations. It’s not right and it’s not sensible.

PR Practitioners are often culpable in maintaining this model. We all like to think that we’re important, the go-to guy in the crisis, the safe pair of hands. Who am I to criticise? I’m an Associate Member of the Emergency Planning Society.

And actually, within the profession (PR that is not emergency planning), we know how to handle crisis comms. It’s pretty simple. React swiftly, do everything you need to do to make people safe and to put right what went wrong, say sorry, and listen with respect to and act upon the criticisms of your organisation.

In short: do the right thing.

I’ve got to float the idea that do the right thing might actually be a sensible way to run an organisation. It seems mad but possibly, just possibly, it might be possible to run an organisation that listens to others, that does everything it can to make people safe and not to screw up the planet and that reacts to problems swiftly.

Now there are lots of reasons that drive organisations to do the wrong thing. What they really need is someone trusted at the heart of the organisation to stop them.

Now I’m not arguing that this role is the exclusive preserve of the shiny-suited ones. Clearly the more people who behave in an moral way within organisations the better.

PR people have less excuse than others though. They are trained to be objective and detached from the groupthink. They are trained to see the organisation as others see it. They have (or should have) the interpersonal and communication skills to help others understand why some decisions are just plain wrong.

So there you are, PR people the moral guardians. That’s either an exciting vision of the future or a sad indictment on where we are as a society.

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